EMV, NFC, & Mobile Payments
Training
Want to find out about the latest trends in mobile/NFC technologies?
Want to know what’s going on RIGHT NOW when it comes to EMV—from standards to implementation?
Q-Card, in partnership with the EMV Academy, now proudly offers training courses,
at a variety of levels, covering these subjects and more.
From introductory courses to multi-day intensive workshops, each course is taught
by knowledgeable leaders in their industry segments and valuable materials are provided
for your further reference and study.
And, if you’re interested in custom training right at your very own facility, you’ll
be glad to know we offer that as well.
EMV, NFC, and Mobile Payments are the future of our industry. So whether
you're one of our customers, an industry professional, or both, this is your chance
to get ahead of the curve.
Brush/Q-Card Changes its Hours of
Operation
To better serve our customers, Brush/Q-Card has changed its hours of operation.
Effective July 9, 2012, our hours of operation will now be Monday through Friday,
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Eastern Time. Our previous schedule of four, ten hour days did
not allow for effective communication on Fridays with our customers and vendors.
We hope that you will notice an improvement in our response times and benefit from
this notable policy change.
Q-Card and EMV Academy Announce
Strategic Venture
U.S. Companies to Drive EMV Training Program; EMV Academy to Feature Q-Card Test
Services, Cards and Equipment Throughout EMV Curriculum.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, July 19, 2012 – EMV Academy, America’s EMV migration experts
and Q-Card, the world’s top supplier of magnetic stripe test cards and testing equipment
announced a strategic agreement today. Q-Card has joined EMV Academy and will work
with it to aggressively facilitate the U.S. banking and payment industry’s migration
to the new EMV chip based payment system. In addition, EMV Academy will feature
Q-Card’s solutions throughout the EMV Academy program.
“American Express recently joined Discover, MasterCard and Visa in outlining an
EMV Roadmap and a timeline for achieving it, which calls for compliance as early
as 2013,” noted Stewart Chalmers, Executive Director, EMV Academy. “As a result,
the need for a proven EMV training curriculum and technologies that meet the payment
associations’ Roadmap objectives is critical. The addition of a world class organization
like Q-Card will strengthen EMV Academy’s program and help customers meet their
EMV goals.”
“Over a dozen years ago, Q-Card anticipated that a more secure payment scheme would
evolve. Since then, we have thoroughly immersed our business in emerging payment
technologies, providing smart card testing services, equipment and technical support
to those countries that have already switched over to EMV. The alliance with EMV
Academy and its full complement of training workshops and ancillary relationships,
will now add another key component to Q-Card’s suite of tools as we play a critical
role in EMV migration here in the U.S.” commented Jeff Myers, Director of Marketing
and Sales at Q-Card.
About Q-Card
Q-Card is a leading manufacturer of magnetic stripe test cards, test equipment and
onsite consulting and laboratory test services. In addition, the company has rapidly
grown its EMV and emerging payment technologies products to meet the needs of its
diverse customer base. Q-Card is the payment industry’s “gold standard” for magnetic
stripe testing solutions. U.S. based Q-Card card products are used more than 15
billion times a year in over 40 countries including China, Hong Kong, Russia, France,
UK, South America, Spain, Africa, Australia and the U.S.
About EMV Academy
EMV Academy, America’s EMV migration experts, is a U.S. based EMV training and technical
consultancy organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. EMV Academy provides
EMV training, EMV migration, compliance, documentation and knowledge across the
contact, contactless and mobile NFC payment markets. Through its preferred partner
network, EMV Academy offers client’s access to the latest EMV products and technologies.
To learn more or schedule and customize a workshop, visit
www.emvacademy.com or contact stew@emvacademy.com.
EMV Payments Leader ICC Solutions and Top U.S. Card Test Equipment and Test Laboratory Leader Q-Card Sign Strategic Agreement
British - American Partnership to Drive EMV Migration in the U.S. Market
ICC Solutions appoints Q-Card as Distributor for its EMV Test & Certification Tools
ATLANTA, GA. And SUNBURY, PA – ICC Solutions Limited, a leading provider of EMV contact and contactless test and certification products to the global payments industry, and Q-Card, the world’s top supplier of magnetic stripe test cards and testing equipment to the card payments industry signed a strategic agreement today. The new partnership will help drive the U.S. payment industry’s migration to the more secure EMV chip and Pin payment standard in the USA.
The addition of Q-Card to ICC’s U.S. sales, marketing and support infrastructure in the USA is a major opportunity for both organizations. It is also part of an ongoing program by ICC Solutions, a recent award recipient of the U.K.’s prestigious Queen’s Awards for International Trade and Innovation, to quickly expand the company’s U.S. operations to support the U.S. payment industry migration to the new EMV chip card. Earlier this month, ICC Solutions announced the opening of a new U.S. HQ in Atlanta, Georgia. For Q-Card, the new partnership expands its leadership in payments by supporting the growth of Q-Card’s emerging payments technology business group, which includes the development of new EMV based contact, contactless and Mobile NFC payment solutions.
Founded in 1996, British-based ICC Solutions is currently the only company in the world capable of offering fully qualified test scripts for American Express AEIPS, Discover D-PAS, INTERAC Contact & Flash; M-TIP, PayPass & NIV for MasterCard; Visa ADVT & ADVT qVSDC Device Module in addition to EMV Level 2 and EMV Entry Point Type Approval test suites. This will be key as the U.S. develops a successful EMV payment infrastructure to meet the VISA and MasterCard mandates.
“Q-Card is a world-class organization long renowned for providing top quality test products, equipment and services to the marketplace,” noted David Maisey, Chief Executive Officer, IC Solutions Limited. “We are excited about the new agreement with Q-Card, which will further expand our footprint in the USA and help us help our customers migrate seamlessly to EMV.”
“Q-Card is truly enthusiastic about the opportunity to represent ICC and its test solutions. ICC Solutions has a solid foundation in the EMV arena, which will greatly boost Q-Card’s capabilities and opportunities here in the U.S. as we migrate to over to EMV,” commented Jeff Myers, Director of Sales and Marketing at Q-Card. “This is a strategic alliance that we have been working to develop for some time now and we feel this agreement puts Q-Card, and ICC, in a great position for future growth.”
About Q-Card - Q-Card manufactures a broad range of magnetic stripe test cards, test equipment and also offers onsite consulting and laboratory test services as well. It is the payment industry’s “gold standard” for magnetic stripe testing solutions. U.S. based Q-Card card products are used more than 15 billion times a year in over 40 countries including China, Hong Kong, Russia, France, UK, South America, Spain, Africa, Australia and the U.S.
About ICC Solutions Ltd. - ICC Solutions is the preeminent supplier of EMV chip and PIN contact and contactless test and certification solutions to the global payments industry. Based in Cheshire, England, ICC maintains offices in Atlanta, Dubai, Singapore and Toronto with partner support offices in New York and California. ICC Solutions offers a broad range of industry recognized test tools, fully approved for certification, and type approvals covering the functional and application level testing of contact and contactless cards and devices (POS and ATM). It also provides industry leading customized Acquirer - Merchant Certification packages. ICC Solutions was recently awarded two prestigious Queen’s Awards for International Trade and Innovation, the United Kingdom’s top industry award.
Jeffrey Myers named Director of Sales and Marketing at Brush Industries and Q-Card
Sunbury, PA – Brush Industries and Q-Card are proud to announce the hiring of Jeffrey J. Myers to be our new Director of Sales and Marketing. His hiring returns him to his roots of working in the technology and electronics industry.
Jeff’s expertise with the electronics and semiconductor industries began at Lunaire Limited, a global manufacturer of industrial heating and environmental testing equipment, serving the electronics and semiconductor industries from Williamsport, PA, where he was Marketing Manager from 1996 to 1998.
Jeff joins us from John Savoy & Savoy, Inc. of Montoursville, PA, a manufacturer of top-quality dormitory furniture, where he spent two years as the Government Sales and Marketing Manager and successfully quoted and contracted over four million dollars in sales in his first six months alone.
Prior to his time at Savoy, Jeff was Director of Marketing at Deluxe Building Systems, Inc. of Berwick, PA, where he was responsible for all sales and marketing activities for the entire company.
His time at Deluxe followed an equally impressive stint at Thomas Register in New York City where he was hired as an independent contractor in charge of advertising sales. While there, Jeff helped many technology based companies improve their marketing programs and increase their revenue. At Thomas Register Jeff managed to increase the company’s customer base by ninety-five percent during his six year tenure.
We are naturally quite excited by Jeff’s extensive experience and also highly impressed by his incredible level of enthusiasm. We are confident that he will bring dynamic results to our organization as we remain on the cutting edge of Contactless, EMV, NFC and other technologies and together take Brush Industries and Q-Card to the next level.
Q-Card Laboratories achieves ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation
Sunbury, PA – Q-Card® Laboratories, an independent magnetic stripe and smartcard test laboratory, has recently received ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. The ISO 17025 certification will help Q-Card Laboratories achieve more consistent results over time through ongoing audits, training, and process improvements.
The accreditation recognizes Q-Card Laboratories' card testing competence. Q-Card is currently ISO/IEC 17025 accredited for 16 different tests. Mechanical card tests include opacity, dimensions, stress, stiffness, adhesion, warping and roughness. Environmental simulation tests include heat resistance, chemical resistance, and stability tests related to temperature and humidity. Electrical tests include signal amplitude and jitter.
Q-Card provides testing services, equipment, and consulting for magnetic stripe, optical bar coding, and smartcard technologies to hundreds of companies all over the world. Accreditation means Q-Card can now provide third-party card testing services to agencies, contractors, and manufacturers that require ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test laboratories.
"The accreditation confirms Q-Card as one of the most trusted card and ticket testing laboratories and test equipment manufacturers in the card industry," says Terry Schindler, Q-Card VP of Engineering. "It affirms the laboratory's commitment to continuous improvements in quality and customer communication."
Located in the company's Sunbury, Pennsylvania facility, Q-Card Laboratories provide third party card and ticket testing services, as well as on-site consulting to leading card manufacturers around the world.
Brush Industries honors the life
and accomplishments of Larry Ditty
Sunbury, PA – Brush Industries and Q-Card announced the passing of former co-owner
and vice president Larry Ditty on January 18, 2011. Larry started with Brush Industries
as an engineer in 1962 and retired in 2010 after 48 years of service. Larry was
a recognizable leader, engineer and innovator among the world's card transaction
industry.
As a leader, Larry played a role in the acquisition of Q-Card®, a sister company
to Brush Industries. The companies have become two of the most trusted names in
the card transaction industry. Larry was involved in the formation of Q-Card Laboratories,
a third-party testing laboratory for the testing of cards, tickets, card readers,
and product development. During Larry's tenure Brush Industries opened a facility
in Hong Kong, and Q-Card has formed a strategic partnership with Apollo (Zhuhai)
Electronics Co., Ltd.
As an engineer, Larry left a legacy of magnetic head innovations. He helped design
the patented Sidewinder™ magnetic stripe reader that was designed specifically
for hostile operating environments. Larry helped design new magnetic head technologies,
including Supermium™, Hypermium™ and CoMoly Extreme™.
Outside of the lab, Larry was an outdoorsman, conservationist, and farmer. He enjoyed
hunting, fishing, and beekeeping.
Upon Larry's retirement from Brush Industries, the company hired Joe Stenglein as
Director of Operations to oversee manufacturing, quality assurance, procurement
and engineering operations.
Q-Card™ and its sister company, Brush Industries® use their broad range
of expertise in magnetic heads, magstripe and chip cards, readers, and product development
to make card transaction products and systems more reliable. Visit
www.brushindustries.com or www.q-card.com for
more information.
Q-Card Announces the Launch of Q-Lab
SUNBURY, PA USA
– Q-Card, a leading supplier of card testing equipment, announced the launch of
a comprehensive plastic card and paper ticket testing facility. The new facility
will be called Q-Lab and will be located in the company’s Sunbury, PA facilities.
The company recently acquired the European card testing lab of MasterCard and moved
it to Sunbury to complement its existing testing facility.
Q-Lab will focus
on providing services to help customers fix an existing problem, improve existing
systems or develop entirely new ticket and plastic card products. “This new laboratory
will formalize the services we’ve been offering for several years,” said Ed Bedell,
the company’s president and CEO. “We are gratified to see our investment in Q-Card
grow into a vital industry service.”
The new lab will
provide consulting services to help card manufacturers, personalization bureaus,
service bureaus, banks, and transit authorities set up quality testing at their
locations or develop new card products. It also will be capable of setting up quality
control programs for production cards and tickets at Q-Lab or at customer locations.
Q-Lab is staffed
by leaders in the mag strip and plastic card and ticket industry who have dedicated
their careers to card products and quality since the invention of the mag stripe
card. These individuals have participated in the development of many card technology
innovations including ISO standards activity, card security and industry seminars.
Initially, services
offered by Q-Card’s Q-Lab fall into four categories:
-
Mag Stripe Analysis
-
Check all mag stripe physical and encoding parameters against ISO
-
Determine why a mag stripe fails to read or fails to meet ISO or customer specifications
-
Determine if mag stripe has surface profile problems that are affecting the signal amplitude or jitter
-
Evaluate raw materials—is the tape supplier providing good mag tape
-
Determine if mag stripe cards are being exposed to erasing magnetic fields
-
Analyze mag stripe noise which can lead to the plastic bag solution at POS
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Evaluate how mag stripe stands up to physical abuse and abrasion
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Certify that mag stripe cards meet all industry requirements
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Physical Card Testing
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Environmental conditions of humidity and temperature
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Impact resistance
-
Card flatness and profiles
-
Card dimension analysis
-
Color control and matching
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Card layer adhesion
-
Card flex testing
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Conductivity and electrostatic discharge
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Vision inspection for mag stripe, logo or chip location, color correctness and other physical attributes
-
Statistical analysis of all data
-
Report generation, certification of conclusions and recommended directions
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Providing Test Card
-
Amplitude and jitter cards with precise control of encoding parameters
-
Set of test cards for testing terminals and encoding equipment
-
Calibration cards for equipment setup and cross-calibration to standards
-
Cleaning cards
-
Consulting
-
New card product development
-
Encoding and reading equipment development or improvements
-
New card application development
-
Specifications for new cards production
-
Design of sampling and quality program for new or existing card products
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Testing new card products for security and performance
-
Patent evaluation and guidance
-
Establish card quality programs, specifications and procedures
-
Settle disputes between equipment, card and end users
Q-Lab uses much
of the same equipment that is offered for sale through Q-Card including the time-tested
Mag3 magnetic stripe analyzer, OptiCheck vision inspection, the statistical software
that was created specifically for these applications, and a host of ISO-specified
testing equipment and procedures.
For more information about Q-Lab go to www.q-card.com or call 800-717-8007
- Built-in F2F Decoder IC
- ISO standard magnetic heads with Magstripe
support
built right into the head!! - Built in Analog to Digital Converter
- Saves costs by reducing external electronics needs
- ISO standard designs are drop-in replacements for existing POS applications
- Full strength TTL digital signal
- Click here for more information.
New Magnetic Stripe Testing and Analysis Services Complete Offerings of Leading Magstripe Technology Company
SUNBURY, PA USA
-- Q-Card recently announced the addition
of third party testing and analysis
services to its line of magnetic stripe analysis offerings.
The Q-Card® line
includes the company’s Mag3™, a magnetic stripe analyzer designed for analyzing
magnetic stripe media with laboratory precision for quality assurance systems and
the Mag4™, which is designed for the production line environment. The testing services
allow the company to provide a complete range of offerings to satisfy any magnetic
stripe testing and analysis need.
“With the introduction
of the Mag4™ for production line testing of cards and tickets, we closed a gap in
the card manufacturer’s needs for testing and quality assurance. What was left was
the need for testing and analysis services that could provide independent, third
party verification of that quality for both the card manufacturers and their customers,”
explained Elk Technologies CTO Larry Ditty.
The company has
been providing these testing and verification services to many high-volume users
of magnetic stripe technology including the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
“Many times, a
company just won’t have the resources to dedicate to owning and operating a sophisticated
piece of equipment like our Mag3™ or our Mag4™,” Ditty said. “Or if they do own
analysis equipment, they might need to confirm their results.
Either way, they get the information they need with an independent, third
party verification performed by magstripe experts,” he said.
According to the
company, the testing services provide numerous benefits including:
-
The ability to test tickets and TFC and ID1 cards before you have problems arise
-
Assurance of quality and consistency of suppliers
-
Consistent testing for adherence to your specifications
-
The ability to test over specific contract periods or in cooperation with QA cycles
-
Identification of problems and what part of the system is causing them
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The ability to design testing procedures for new systems
-
The ability to test new card and ticket stock, used or damaged stock, even cut tickets
-
Engineering-generated reports with data presented graphically
Brush Industries Places 23rd in
Best Places to Work in PA Program
Brush Industries has been awarded the 23rd best place to work in Pennsylvania for
medium sized companies. The Best Place to Work in PA program is program that identifies,
recognizes and honors the best places of employment in Pennsylvania, for the benefit
of Pennsylvania's economy, its workforce and businesses.
The program examines hundreds of companies in two categories across the state of
Pennsylvania. Factors used to determine a company's qualifications for the program
include philosophy, practices towards employees, performance and training systems,
demographics, with a strong emphasis on how the company's employees rate the company
they work for.
"It's rewarding to see our systems approach to building our business garner this
kind of attention. This award is a confirmation that our people are our greatest
asset," said Edwin Bedell, President and CEO.
Brush Industries is no stranger to the awards circle. The company has been awarded
many times, including the Pennsylvania Governor's Export Certificate, the Cubic
Certified Supplier and Letter of Commendation, Kulicke & Soffa's Certified Ship
to Stock Award, DataCard's Commendable Performance Award, Citicorp's Valued Service
Award Letter of Commendation and the Pennsylvania State Legislature Citation.
Brush Industries Forms New Hong
Kong-Based Company
Brush Industries, Chairman and CEO, Ed Bedell, announced the formation of a new
company Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd to serve the Asian market. The company, located in
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, is a 60/40 joint venture company owned by Ed Bedell and Mr.
Y S Yang, Zhuhai, China. Mr. Bedell is Chairman and Mr. Yang is Vice Chairman of
Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd. is a sales company responsible for sales and marketing of
Brush Holding Company products to the Asian market. Products include magnetic heads,
readers and test equipment. Local Hong Kong personnel staff the office.
In a separate announcement Brush (Hong Kong) Ltd., Hong Kong, announced it has received
an initial order from MTR Corporation, Hong Kong, for Long Life Magnetic Heads manufactured
by Brush Industries in Sunbury PA. Ed Bedell, chairman, stated, "We were called
in to meet with MTR maintenance engineers based on the reputation of our magnetic
heads for long life and reliability in hostile Transit environments. These long
life heads will be installed in the Hong Kong Transit System where they read and
write fare collection data on the magnetic stripe on transit tickets. Brush Industries,
Sunbury employees can take great pride in this accomplishment which reflects the
quality of their work."
On a more strategic note Mr. Bedell added, "I have long felt it is necessary to
be on the leading edge of the China market entry. Clearly it presents a large potential
for our products. With that in mind I have made the Asian market an important personal
activity over the last 2 years. It is very gratifying to announce the success of
our efforts. It is also very satisfying to know that this will bring additional
work into our community."
Brush Industries and its sister company elk Technologies provide hardened components
and readers for the ticket and credit card readers, Smartcard card readers, and
through its Q-Card® product line, magnetic test cards and developers, magnetic test
services and magnetic analyzing equipment. Their products are installed in countries
throughout the world including many countries in Asia, Russia, France, UK, South
America, Spain, Africa, Australia and the USA. Additionally Brush industries with
its precision machine shop is a leading supplier of wire bonding heads to the semiconductor
equipment industry.
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